Persona 3: Catch and Release
by NutellaSama
Summary: Gekkoukan's Junior-Senior gym class goes fishing one day and they encounter some humorous and embarrassing moments. From someone who has inexperience with fishing to someone getting smacked in the face by a fish. OOC Moments are in this fanfic.


A joint class with seniors and juniors of Gekkoukan High are dressed in their spring PE uniforms on a Monday afternoon. It was the last class of the school day. They have their fishing poles at their sides, ready to perform what they had been taught. Today, they get to fish near Paulownia River. Minato looks forward to doing this, as well as Akihiko because they are the top students of their PE class.

"Hey," Junpei yelled, coming over to Minato, "Mina-to....S'up dude?"

"Nothin' much? You ready to fish?" Minato replied.

"Hell yeah. I'm gonna catch me a big one!"

"Big one! Psh, like there's a chance of big fish in this water!" Yukari said, standing next to Minato. 

Minato replied with a smile as Junpei checks his lure and bobber.

"Okay, boys and girls, keep your distance, and don't get your lines caught, break the bobber, or break the rod," the PE teacher yelled for the whole class to hear, "If this happens, you'll get a ten-point penalty on your daily quiz grade."

"Oh shit," Minato said, "Five points?"

"That's a problem, Arisato-kun?"

"No sir."

"Good, now choose your area of preference and start fishing. One more thing, the person who is lucky to catch the biggest fish in the class gets a 20 point bonus on the test. Do as I taught you."

"Holy shit!" Junpei said, surprised at the gym teachers generous request, "Twenty points on the test! Hell yeah! Don't any of you touch my fish."

"Your fish? Does that mean you're a mermaid that has control of all the fish?" Akihiko said, carrying his pole on his shoulder. He chooses a spot next to Minato. Mitsuru stands beside Akihiko with the pole in her hand.

"So, is everyone ready to fish?" Mitsuru asked. She listened to half of the teacher's rant about fishing, but her mind was occupied with finishing the last half of her Calculus problems and she finished towards the end of his tirade.

Yukari and Minato snicker at Aki's comeback. Aki opens a can of lure, a mixture of preserved dead little fish and live worms in an amorphous brown solid. Yukari, cringed at the motion of the worms.

"Eww," Yukari screeched, "Nasty. That's like the worst part of fishing to me. Touching worms and dead fish."

"You're such a priss, Yuka-tan." Junpei commented.

"So? I'm a girl."

"So, you know how to put it on your hook?"

"Yeah, Akihiko-senpai, may I have a lure for my hook?"

"Sure," Akihiko said, handing her the open jar.

Yukari sniffed at the open jar and becomes repulsed by the slimy, dirty appearance. She gingerly pulls out a dead anchovie by the tail, and takes the head part of it and slips it on the hook.

"Ewwww," she complained, "This feels so nasty!"

"Relax, Takeba. It's dead."

"I know! But it's disgusting."

The senpai sighed, "Typical of you to say that!"

"May I have a bait too?" Minato asked Akihiko.

"Yeah, give this to Arisato-kun." He gives Yukari the jar again. Yukari holds the jar for Minato to grab the bait. A tail is squirming on the surface of the jelly like liquid, so Minato picks it.

"Okay," he slowly says, carefully pulling it. The worm is shaped like a letter "y", he observed, realizing that he has a worm with a mutation, squished between his thumb and forefinger.

"Whoa!" Junpei said, looking closer, "Shit, that's a two headed worm! That's freaky."

"Lemme see," Yukari said, looking at the mutated worm, "Eww....that's so cool but gross at the same time!"

"I think I wanna keep it as a pet!" Minato said, laughing.

"Dude, you are crazy! What if that thing crawls in bed with you?"

"Ken can have it, then. On second thought, I'll give the worm to him. Akihiko-senpai, don't give this one to the fish."

"Okay," Akihiko said, and returned the mutated worm in the jar. Minato grabbed another one and impales it with the hook. He plucks the bait to check if it's intact, "Good to go."

Mitsuru has her fishing rod at her side and asks for a bait. She gets an anchovy, smaller than Yukari's and puts it on the hook.

"Alright," she swings back her rod, with both hands. She takes a deep breath, putting behind her inexperience with fishing, then swings it forward, releasing her fishing line to about a dissappointing five feet. She sighed, and Akihiko gives her a surprised look. He was quite shocked at Mitsuru's launch.

"Really, Mitsuru?" Akihiko said, "You look like you lack experience in this."

"What was that?" Junpei asked, teasing Mitsuru.

"What? Not like I fished before."

"You never fished?"

"Tch. No, I'm not an outdoor sport person. Fencing is my niche."

"It's okay, you just didn't press the release button at the right time. Reel your line. Like this." Akihiko gets behind her and begins directing. She feels him against her ear, breathing slowly with the smell of mint. He has his hand on top of hers, and reels back the spool of line. She swallows.

"Now," Akihiko says, guiding her rod slightly vertical to the back of her shoulder, over ninety degrees, "You don't want to go over ninety degrees, like a hundred or so, just between ninety and ninety five."

He guides her thumb on the button, and he keeps it in the position he showed her.

"Keep your thumb on the release button and don't press," the silver haired boy instructed, "When you swing forward you want to press it at a 40-45 degree angle."

"Like this," they swing the rod forward at the same time and press the button at Aki's reccommended angle, "There."

The line and lure shoot forward, greater than her first attempt. She smiled at her success.

"Amazing, as always, Mitsuru," Akihiko praises.

"Aww," Yukari said like a fangirl to Minato, "They're so cute together. Don't you agree?"

"Yeah."

"Leave it all up to the pro!" Junpei said, having confidence in Akihiko.

Akihiko steps back, gripping the handle of the rod, cocks it back like a baseball player prepping to kick off a vertically overhand throw, and he launches as far as about halfway of the river and waits until the bobber shows up.

Junpei's mouth fell agape, "Dude, that was one amazing launch."

Minato nodded in aggrement and he began to focus on casting. He launches, but he didn't go as far as Akihiko, but he went farther than Mitsuru's. He patiently waits.

"Alright, let's do this. For the sake of the 20 point bonus on the test." Junpei took a deep breath and casted far.

Yukari nods and casts next with a graceful throw.

"Now you try, Mitsuru." Akihiko said, still waiting for something to bite his lure.

Mitsuru sighs, "I can do this." She has the rod tip at angle behing her back, she swings, and at midpoint she releases but, she intersects with Akihiko and Minato's lines. Another error made. People at school think she's perfect but this feat has fooled them.

Minato sighs, "You're on my line, Mitsuru."

"And mine too," Akihiko said, "make sure your eyelets of your rod are aligned at the center next time."

Mitsuru growled, "I'm so inexperienced at this. I apologize."

"It's okay, I was like that too when Shinji showed me the ropes."

"Shinjiro taught you?"

"Yeah, when we were at the orphanage. We used to go to the river around there."

"....Interesting."

"I forgot to add," the gym teacher says, "The first person to catch a fish gets a 10 point bonus on the test."

"Awesome!" Junpei said, bobber still in the water.

Something circles around Akihiko's bobber and Mitsuru notices.

"Look! Something's by your bobber! Get it before it leaves!" She says eagerly like a child who's going to miss the ice cream truck.

"Not yet, Mitsuru. Hurry up and carefully wind your line or else you'll get caught. You have to give it time to eat the bait and let the hook catch him."

Mitsuru carefully reels in her line and exhales, "Sorry, once again."

"Don't need to be apologetic about it."

"I must be apologetic, I 'suck'."

"Mitsuru, don't say that! You don't suck at fishing."

She sighs, "I do."

"Shinji and I will practice with you this weekend."

"Really? You two would do such a thing?"

"Yeah, that's what friends are for, right?" He asks, with a grin on his face. The fish has noticed the bait and he is on the hook. Akihiko sets the hook at an angle, takes a moment, and reels the fish in with all of his indispensable strength.

"Got one!" Akihiko yelled. The gym teacher comes over with his grade book and writes +10 in his book next to his name.

"Good job, Sanada. Plus ten." the gym teacher praised.

"Yeah, Akihiko-senpai! He was born to fish." Junpei said, happy for Akihiko.

"Stop it, Junpei."

"Let's see the fish!" he says eagerly.

Akihiko takes the hook out of the fish's mouth and holds it by the tail as it writhes, shimmering gold from the sun reflecting from the fish's scales. It resembles a koi with an elongated torso. Junpei is impressed at his catch. Akihiko kneels, releasing the fish back to the water.

"That was awesome. You're good at everything...except picking up girls."

Akihiko gave him a bitter grin and says, "When you catch a fish, I hope it smacks you in the face with his tail."

Junpei gave him a silly smile as he waits for his fish to go for the bait.

Minato looks down the long line of thirty-eight students and notices Aigis and Fuuka are on their own, talking and laughing together with their lines in the water. He waves at them and notices Kenji and Keisuke waving back at him instead.

"Why are Aigis-san and Fuuka-chan over there by themselves?"

"Those two have been real close lately," Yukari said. She feels a tug on her line, it's strong and it plunges the bobber and rod tip.

"Hey, looks like you have a big one, Takeba!" Akihiko says, "What are you waiting for?! Set the hook!"

"I see that," she pulls the rod back a bit and she reels in, mustering all of her strength, "I can do this." Junpei gets behind Yukari and he puts his hand on top of her hand on the reeling handle and provides more strength to reel in. The heat of his hand, strenously reeling the fish in also makes her hand flare with the passion on catching this whopper of a fish. She blushes at their contact and they finally reeled in the fish.

Junpei grabs the fish with a hug and he grabs its tail to show everyone.

Yukari gasps, "I can't believe I caught that!" She compares the size of her hand to the fish, "That thing's like the size of my handspan! Awesome work, me."

"Great job, Takeba! You caught a big one!"

"You're welcome."

"Good, Takeba. You handled that very well."

"And what about me?!" Junpei asked.

"You just helped me reel, Stupei. Thanks! I'll be sure to give you half of my credit. I promise."

The teacher comes over and gasps at the size of the fish, "Shit! This is one huge fish! You've outdone yourself, Takeba."

"Thank you!"

"Twenty points!"

"Hey, what about me?"

"Iori, where's your fish?"

"I didn't catch one, but I helped her reel in this big fish with my strength," he says with the fish wriggling in his hand.

"Don't tell me he's trying to get credit too," Akihiko says to Minato, "I hate people like that. Because you helped someone doesn't mean you deserve all of the credit."

"Okay, Iori, five points bonus has been added to your test grade," the PE teacher declared.

"Shouldn't I get ten points?!"

"Did you catch a fish?"

"I helped! See?" Junpei holds the fish to the teacher's face.

"Problem resolved," the teacher said, leaving him to catch his fish, "okay, ten points it is! Now get that fish out of my face."

Junpei smiles, "Haha. It worked. Thanks, Yukatan! Wanna hold the fishie?!"

"Uh, sure!" Yukari said, taking the fish. The fish is about ten pounds heavy, and she holds it up by the tail and examines it, "I wonder what kind of fish is it?"

"Hmm, don't know," Junpei said.

"Bass." Akihiko answered.

The fish impatiently wriggles its body and unexpectedly, it swings towards Yukari's face at full strength. The fish slaps her with the side of its head. Her mouth opened wide in shock of the blunt impact and she yelped, "Bad fish! Bad fish!"

Akihiko, Minato, Mitsuru, and Junpei laugh at the scene she made. Yukari set the fish free into the water.

"Ouch," Yukari said, "That was a mean fish."

"I just loved your face when that thing smacked you. That was unforgettable," Junpei snickered. 

"It was not!"

"It was too!"

"Was not!" Yukari steps forward.

"Was too!" Junpei also steps forward.

"Was not!"

"Uh huh." Junpei nods.

"Uh uh." Yukari shakes her head.

"Uh huh."

"Stop, you two sound like you're in kindergarten," Akihiko said, irritated at their bickering, "Besides, Ken even behaves better than you two. And that's pretty...sad."

"Okay you all," the teacher called, "Disassemble and file out in an orderly fashion."

Everyone takes their rods and bait with them and head for their locker rooms.

After school...

Minato and the gang return to their dorm. The blue haired boy has the jar of the mutated worm in his hand. Akihiko, with the dorm keys in his hand, unlocks the door. Inside the dorm, Ken is at the dinner table, working on his homework.

"Ken-kun!" Yukari called, "We have something for you!"

Ken comes over the group eager to know what they have for him.

Minato pulls out the jar and gives it to Ken. Ken holds it close, viewing at eye-level.

"What is it?" 

"The coolest thing we've ever seen!" Junpei said, with his trademark silly smile.

"A dirty jar?"

"There's something in it." Minato said.

Ken opens the jar and looks inside it. He sees the worm snaking around the jar. Ken notices something's wrong with the worm.

"It has two heads! You found this?"

"Well, Akihiko didn't realize that there was a two headed worm in his bait jar."

"Cool! So, can I keep it?"

Minato nods, "Yeah. Knew you would like it."

"Yeah, I'm gonna put this upstairs in my room. Thanks." Ken said, grateful of his gift from Minato.

"Okay, I'll be in my room starting my homework. Akihiko, thanks for your instruction." Mitsuru said, with her briefcase in hand. She walks upstairs to her room

"No problem." Akihiko says.

"Oh, and I have to tell you this funny story about Yuka-tan getting slapped by a fish." Junpei said, going to the sofa.

"This sounds like a great story."

Yukari sighs, "Not this again."

Junpei tells the story of what happened in gym class. Lots of laughs came from his friends, even Yukari who was amused herself. What an unforgettable moment they had today, from Mitsuru's inexperience with fishing from Yukari getting smacked in the face by a fish, it was a great day that was filled with humor and embarrassment.


End file.
